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ย Description
Working at the World Bank Group provides a unique opportunity for you to help our clients solve their greatest development challenges. The World Bank Group is one of the largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries; a unique global partnership of five institutions dedicated to ending extreme poverty, increasing shared prosperity and promoting sustainable development. With 189 member countries and more than 120 offices worldwide, we work with public and private sector partners, investing in groundbreaking projects and using data, research, and technology to develop solutions to the most urgent global challenges. For more information, visit www.worldbank.org.
THE WATER GLOBAL PRACTICE
Water resources are under unprecedented and increasing pressures, driven by greater climate variability, population and economic growth, land-use changes, and declining quantities and qualities of both ground and surface waters.ย With cross-cutting impacts on agriculture, education, energy, health, gender equity, and livelihood, water is an essential resource for all life on the planet and is at the center of economic and social development.ย Climate change expresses itself through water and sound water management lies at the heart of the resilience agenda. Successful water management requires accurate knowledge of the resource available and an assessment of competing demands for its usage. Making best use of available supplies requires complex and sensitive economic, environmental and socio-political trade-offs. Planning for a more uncertain and more constrained water environment in the future only makes the situation more complex. The world will not be able to meet the great development challenges of the 21st century - human development, livable cities, climate change, food security, energy security, and universal access to services โ unless we ensure a water-secure world for all.ย
The WBG is in a unique position to help governments take such an integrated and strategic approach to solve water supply, sanitation, water resource, hydropower, and irrigation problems through partnership, finance, and knowledge.ย The Water Global Practice is poised to deliver on a Water Secure World through an approach that focuses on Sustaining Water Resources, Delivering Services and Building Resilience. The WTR GP also has strong external partnerships and houses the Global Water Security and Sanitation Program (GWSP), the 2030 Water Resources Group (2030WRG) and several regional transboundary programs.ย The GP has a close-knit leadership structure, with a Global Director, 11 Practice Managers, 2 Global Program Managers, and Global Leads for
(1) WSS Service Delivery,
(2) Water in Agriculture,
(3) Water Resources Management,
(4) Economics and Climate, and
(5) Finance.
The LT also works closely with other GPs and the SD Regional Directors. Increasingly, while staff may specialize in one sub-sector, they are encouraged and supported to address the full water agenda in terms of analytical, policy, and operational work. The GP, through its fully integrated GWSP Trust Fund, places highest priority on global knowledge into local implementation, as well as in deploying and providing opportunities for staff to work in operational regions and global products.
THE WATER GLOBAL PRACTICE FRONT OFFICE
Led by the Global Director, the Front Office (FO) drives the policy direction of the Water GP. Nine staff support the Global Director in the FO to deliver on both external and internal priorities: the five Global Leads, a Lead Water Resources Management Specialist, a Senior Water Economist, a Program Analyst, and a Senior Executive Assistant. Externally, the FO leads the GPโs strategic engagement with high-level partners to set the global water agenda. Internally, the FO is focused on improving the quality of operations, advocating for the water agenda and managing corporate knowledge flows and reporting. On operations, the FO oversees portfolio monitoring and ensures close coordination between the Global Unit, Global Leads, GWSP, 2030 WRG and the regional Water Practice Managers and task teams to bring global knowledge into country operations and analytical work. Technical peer review is a key component of operational delivery and the FO coordinates with the Global Leads on this quality assurance function. At the corporate level, the FO liaises with the Sustainable Development Vice Presidential Unit, responds to requests from the Managing Directors, manages corporate priorities and reporting, and works with the Global Unit to adhere to Bank corporate mandates (on gender, inclusion, climate change, dam safety, maximizing finance for development and fragility, conflict and violence).ย
The Global Lead for Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS) leads the Water Global Practiceโs efforts to support Bank teams and client countries to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6, in particular SDG 6.1 and 6.2.ย The individual will work closely with the other Global Leads for Water Resources Management, Water in Agriculture, Water and Finance, and Water, the Economy and Climate Change.ย This will include close coordination in areas such as Water Security, Water Governance, Circular Economy, Private Sector participation and financing, and economics of WSS service delivery (in particular, tariffs and subsidies), among others. The global lead will also work closely with Practice Managers and Task Team Leaders on specific engagements at regional and country level, ensuring to bring global lessons to project design and implementation as well as creating the channels to disseminate relevant regional experiences at the global level.ย The individual is also expected to be the GPโs global expert on WSS related issues and trends and as such, should stay abreast of new developments and emerging trends in the sector and cultivate relationships with key partners including government counterparts, regulators, civil society, bilateral and multi-donor development bank representatives, UN agencies, academics, and other organizations with interest in water supply and sanitation issues.
The Global Lead for Water Supply and Sanitation is also responsible for providing the intellectual and technical leadership for the WSS Global Solutions Group (WSS GSG), which will require close coordination with the focal points/thematic leaders of key initiatives and Communities of Practice, including: Policies, Institutions and Regulation (PIR); Utilities of the Future; Water in the Circular Economy and Resilience (WICER); City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS); Rural WASH; WASH in Schools and Health Facilities (WASH-SH); Desalination; Non-Revenue Water; Digitalization; and Water Secure Cities. In addition, the Global Lead will maintain close cooperation with Global Practices and Cross Cutting Solutions Areas, including Health, Environment, and Urban, Rural and Social Development, Climate Change, Fragility, Conflict and Violence, among others.ย
THE SINGAPORE WATER CENTER
The Singapore Water Centre is designed in the backdrop of a serious global challenge around water. The aim of the Singapore Water Center is to foster innovation, knowledge exchange, and capacity development of policy makers, utility managers and other key stakeholders in the Water sector and draw on the Singapore ecosystem of expertise in water. The Center will be part of the World Bankโs Water Global Practice to allow exchange of relevant experiences and knowledge between Singapore and other regions of the world. The Singapore Water Centre aims to amplify impact by translating Singaporeโs experience, knowledge, and capabilities to catalyze innovations in policy, technology and finance of World Bank client countries. The breadth of the center will cover a whole-of-water approach, demonstrating Singaporeโs innovation and practices across all the water sub-sectors and the cross-cutting and integrative aspects of water. This includes water sub-sectors such as urban and rural water and sanitation, water resources management and resilience, storage and irrigation amongst others. Through these collaborative efforts, the goal is to increase the capacity of water sector stakeholders to contribute towards achieving water security across World Bank's client countries, fortifying the sustainability of projects supported by the World Bank. The Singapore Water Center will serve as a hub for promoting excellence, driving innovation, and facilitating partnerships that contribute to tackling broader, and longer-term water security challenges.
The Global Lead for WSS will also be the Coordinator for the Singapore Water Center (SWC).
The Global Lead will report to the Global Director located in Washington, D.C. The position will be based in Singapore.
The specific duties and accountabilities of the Global Lead for Water Supply and Sanitation will include, inter alia:
โข Maintain a well-functioning WSS GSG that delivers knowledge into implementation. This will require leadership and close coordination with the focal points/thematic leaders of key initiatives and Communities of Practice, including: Policies, Institutions and Regulation (PIR); Utilities of the Future; Water in the Circular Economy and Resilience (WICER); City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS); Rural WASH; WASH in Schools and Health Facilities (WASH-SH); Desalination; Non-Revenue Water; Digitalization; and Water Secure Cities.
โข Organize and operate the WSS GSG Technical peer review system, which will include: providing feedback for new lending and major ASAs at PCN, QER and DM stages; organizing and leading key โsafe spaceโ meetings; ensuring that key lessons from peer review process and global lessons are available to be included in project design; coordinating GSG feedback on key Water GP products (beyond WSS GSG) and SD (beyond Water), CCDRs, CPFs, regional strategies, etc.
โข Provide technical and intellectual leadership on WSS sector reforms, including on policies, institutions, regulation, utilities and other service providers. This will require working closely with the Water GPโs Leadership Team and external water sector leaders and organizations in identifying trends, documenting, and communicating lessons learnt from reform processes around the world, ensuring that these are captured in country level engagement and project design and implementation. This will require direct support to some high visibility and high impact projects and programs, including participating in missions as appropriate.
โข Stay abreast and effectively communicate to Water GP staff water sector innovations and emerging trends, in particular on digitalization, desalination, wastewater reuse and resource recovery, regulation, private sector participation and financing, water security, etc.
โข Lead and manage the Water Global Water Practiceโs efforts to increase access to water supply and sanitation.ย Work collaboratively with World Bank staff and management, senior government, and private sector officials.
โข Directly engage with and provide support to regional initiatives on universal access to Water Supply and Sanitation, including working with PMs, TTLs, donors and other development partners.
โข Work with EAP Regionโs WBG leadership, the Government of Singapore, and PUB (Singaporeโs Public Utility), together with the Water leadership team of the Bank, to facilitate the governance of the Singapore Water Center, set the strategic agenda for the Singapore Water Center, and help facilitate support to global clients through the SWC.
โข Provide day to day coordination of the SWC activities, oversee the delivery of the SWC activities, manage its budget, provide mentoring and guidance to the team working on SWC and coordinate the preparation of annual reports, briefs and communication materials on SWC.
More detailed responsibilities and priorities will be refined at the outset of employment and annually.
Selection Criteria
โข Engineering Degree and Master's degree in Public Policy/Administration, Infrastructure, Water Resources Management, Economics, Urban Development/ Planning, Business strategy, and/or Administration.
โข At least 15 years of international and country-level work experience in WSS sector institutions (i.e. Regulators, Service Providers, Local Government Administration).
โข Experience in at least two regions or a combination of regional and corporate assignments.ย
โข Clear understanding of the technical, financial and policy drivers of water sector reforms and the financing, economics, and the political economy of these reforms.
โข Internal and external recognition as an expert on WSS related issues.
โข Established networks among key individuals and organizations associated with WSS and water resources management, climate, and environment agendas, ideally across public, private, and civil society sector activities.
โข Demonstrated ability to collaborate across different sectors (i.e. GPs and PGs).
โข Proven ability to work with Director-level staff in the World Bank Group or equivalent in other international organizations, senior-most government officials (at the Minister or Principal Secretary level), non-governmental organizations, private sector, as well as with representatives from civil society and academia.
โข Sound managerial skills, with proven capacity to manage and motivate team members in complex, highly decentralized, and matrixed organizational settings and manage budgets and work programs.ย
โข Outstanding verbal and written communication skills in English; proficiency in Spanish and/or French is strongly preferred.
World Bank Group Core Competencies
The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.
Learn more about working at theย World Bankย andย IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.